LeGrand L. Baker

1 Nephi 12:16-18 

16. And the angel spake unto me, saying: Behold the fountain of filthy water that thy father saw; yea, even the river of that he spake; and the depths thereof are the depths of hell.
17. And the mists of darkness are the temptations of the devil, that blindeth the eyes, and hardeneth the hearts of the children of men, and leadeth them away into broad roads, that they perish and are lost.
18. And the large and spacious building, that thy father saw, is vain imaginations and the pride of the children of men. And a great and a terrible gulf divideth them; yea, even the word of the justice of the Eternal God, and the Messiah who is the Lamb of God, of whom the Holy Ghost beareth record, from the beginning of the world until this time, and from this time henceforth and forever.

A common thread runs through the symbolism of each of the bad things the angel explained to Nephi. That thread is a persistence in insisting that things are real when they are not real. Jeremiah accused the children of Israel of the same sort of thing: “How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods” (Jeremiah 5:7). That same sense, that the pagan gods are not gods but just bits of wood or metal, is also found in Isaiah: “All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity” (Isaiah 40:17).

Both Jeremiah and Isaiah are accusing the Israelites of the same thing: Not that they are swearing by or worshiping a god that is false, but that they are swearing by and worshiping a god that has no reality at all.

This is like the angel’s explanation to Nephi: “The mists of darkness are the temptations of the devil, that blindeth the eyes, and hardeneth the hearts” (1 Nephi 12:17). Blindness of this sort is never perceived as real blindness. It mocks the light and “loves darkness rather than light.” Here again the problem is one’s refusing to see the reality of the light and insisting that a bad thing is actually good, turning from reality to a fiction and using the fiction to obscure the reality. Evil is real, but the rationale that is used to justify it is an illusion.

Hardness of heart is the same thing. The refusal to know binds us in “the chains of hell” (Alma 12:11). Having a hard heart is refusing to hear, as being in the mists of darkness is refusing to see. It is turning from the reality of the things of God to a fiction that are the “philosophies of men,” making the fiction the path of one’s life and refusing to recognize the light that is real.

“The large and spacious building…is vain imaginations and the pride of the children of men.” Everything is this world, even our own bodies testify to us that they are tentative. “Vain” simply means things that have no consequence, artificial things (money, a fancy car, a big house, power, the ability to exercise authority over other people) that are transient in their nature, temporary in their worth. They seem as real as our experience in this world but are not real in terms of our being able to sustain their existence, or they ours, beyond the this life.

Not everything in this world lacks permanence. One’s house is temporary, and will decay into the elements from which it came, but inviting someone home to dinner may have eternal ramifications. The car is temporary, but giving someone a ride when he needs to get somewhere is real. Power and authority are very temporary, but blessing someone’s life is very real. Real things are things that will last through eternity.

“Vain imaginations” is a kind of redundancy. It suggests things that have no reality but that are imagined to be of worth. Pride is about things that have no reality but that are imagined to be of worth, except “pride” is one’s attitude about the imaginary things with which we decorate ourselves (like the emperor’s clothes) as opposed to the “vain imaginations” that we worship.

If this appraisal is correct, then the message of the angel to Nephi is that our successfully going to the tree of life may be as simple as having a correct perception of reality, and going anywhere else is only pretending that a non-reality has worth, and then seeking after that pretended worth. Then of course, when we get it, pride is making sure everyone else recognizes that we have it.

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1 Nephi 13:12 

12. And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land.

Our tendency, sometimes, when we think of foreordination, is to limit the scope of our own understanding to having it be about only the great prophets. But here is a striking example of Nephi’s knowing about Columbus’s mission 2,000 years before it happened. Nephi also described other events that required specific individuals to bring about their accomplishment. For example, President Ezra Taft Benson observed:

The restoration of the gospel and the establishment of the Lord’s church could not come to pass until the founding fathers were raised up and completed their foreordained missions. Those great souls who were responsible for the freedoms we enjoy acknowledged the guiding hand of providence.{1}

President Benson’s words echo George Washington’s:

The hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations.”{2}

Just because those men were foreordained to their tasks does not mean that the tasks were easily accomplished. It only means that the Lord removed the obstacles that would have prevented them altogether. Elder Alvin R. Dyer observed:

The very articles of the Constitution would seem testimony enough that the ministerial bickerings of that day did not hamper, to any appreciable degree, the work for which they were foreordained of God and which they accomplished to the lasting benefit of mankind.{3}

When Wilford Woodruff did the temple work for the Founding Fathers and others in the St. George Temple, he ordained all the men for whom vicarious work was done to be elders, except a few whom he ordained High Priests. President Woodruff’s journal reads:

August 19, 1877
I spent the Evening in preparing a list of the Noted Men of the 17 Century and 18th including the signers of the declaration of Independence and the Presidents of the United States for Baptism on Tuesday the 21 Aug 1877.

August 21, 1877
I Wilford Woodruff went to the Temple of the Lord this morning and was Baptized for 100 persons who were dead including the signers of the Declaration of Independence all except John Hancock and [William Floyd]. I was baptized for the following names: [lists names] ….

Baptized for the following Eminent Men: [lists names] ….
When Br McAllister had Baptized me for the 100 Names I Baptized him for 21, including Gen Washington & his forefathers and all the Presidents of the United States that were not in my list Except Buchanan Van Buren & Grant. It was a vary interesting day. I felt thankful that we had the privilege and power to administer for the worthy dead especially for the signers of the declaration of Independence. that inasmuch as they had laid the foundation of our Government that we Could do as much for them as they had done for us.
Sister Lucy Bigelow Young went forth into the font and was Baptized for Martha Washington and her family and seventy (70) of the Eminent women of the world. I Called upon all the Brethren & Sisters who were present to assist in getting Endowments for those that we had been Baptized for that day.

August 22, 1877
…. [Wilford Woodruff] ordained 2 High Priests for George Washington and John Wesley ….

August 23, 1877
…. W Woodruff Ordained 2 High Priest One for Christopher Columbus.

March 19, 1894
I had a Dream in the night. I met with Benjamin Franklin. I thought he was on the Earth. I spent several hours with him and talked over our Endowments. He wanted some more work done for him than had been done that I promised him He should have (2d). I thought then He died and while waiting for burial I awoke. I thought very strange of my Dream. I made up m mind to get 2d Anointing for Benjamin Franklin & George Washington.{4}

One can get a better sense of how completely God is in charge of the world’s affairs when we realize that not only is he aware of what is going to happen, but he is also concerned with who is going to do it. Brigham Young explained,

If God has foreordained certain men to certain ends, it is because he knew all things from eternity, as in the case of Pharaoh, who he knew would do wickedly; consequently, selected him to be put upon the throne. “You are determined to be wicked and to carry out the schemes of the Devil; therefore I will use you to promote my kingdom on the earth and to exalt me among men, for I know that you will do all you can against my children, against my work, and against my grace to save the children of men.” God raised him to the throne of Egypt, because he foresaw that in this position he could use him to the greatest advantage to His cause,—not because he was foreordained to that position.{5}

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FOOTNOTES

{1} Ezra Taft Benson, The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1988), 604.

{2} John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of George Washington, 39 vols.(Washington, U.S. G.P.O. 1931-44), 12:343.

{3} Alvin R. Dyer, Who Am I? (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1966), 20.

{4} “Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, 1833-1898,” Typescript in 9 vols. edited by Scott G. Kenney.

{5} Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (London: Latter-day Saints’ Book Depot, 1854-1886), 8: 160.

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1 Nephi 16:5-8  

5 And it came to pass that they did humble themselves before the Lord; insomuch that I had joy and great hopes of them, that they would walk in the paths of righteousness.
6 Now, all these things were said and done as my father dwelt in a tent in the valley which he called Lemuel.
7 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, took one of the daughters of Ishmael to wife; and also, my brethren took of the daughters of Ishmael to wife; and also Zoram took the eldest daughter of Ishmael to wife.
8 And thus my father had fulfilled all the commandments of the Lord which had been given unto him. And also, I, Nephi, had been blessed of the Lord exceedingly.

The culture of ancient Israel which is also the culture of the Book of Mormon, rarely gives expression to the idea of love between a man and a woman.{1} A striking exception is the story of Isaac and Rebekah, which simply reads,

27 And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death (Genesis 24:67).

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FOOTNOTE

{1} Among the most famous expressions of devotion in the Old Testament is that between Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi, when Ruth said, “Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God” (Ruth 1:16).
Another is David’s love for Jonathan: “And Jonathan caused David to swear again, because he loved him: for he loved him as he loved his own soul” (1 Samuel 20:17). “How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women (2 Samuel 1:25-26).
There is also David’s mourning, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!” (2 Samuel 18:33).

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1 Nephi 16:5  

5. And it came to pass that they did humble themselves before the Lord; insomuch that I had joy and great hopes of them, that they would walk in the paths of righteousness.

Nephi’s feelings are the very foundation of true Christianity and the strongest testimony of the power of the Atonement. We come to this world of hunger and death in linear time with two objects—one is thrust upon us by our physical needs in time and place. The other seems to linger in the shadows of a foreordination that we do not remember. The first is that we must eat, sleep, and be warm when the earth is cold. To do that one must earn a living, provide shelter, food and warmth for himself and those he loves. The linear time in which we finds our Selves projects those needs into an unknown future, magnifying their intensity and diminishing their ability to be satisfied. This seems good, for it teaches one to be prepared for the future, defines him as wise and gives a sense of security to himself and his loved ones. But if it becomes too big, too urgent, too consuming— his job, social standing, expensive toys, and position of “respect” and power—it can calcify his soul, turn love to a desire to possess or to control, and cause him to lose sight of the mission for which he came here.

Everyman is a Silas Marner who, if he turns around, ceases to be the thing he was, and makes himself receptive to the new heart Ezekiel promises (Ezekiel 11:19). The Biblical word translated “repentance” does not mean to change what one is and become something else, it means “to turn”—implicitly, to walk toward rather than away from Christ.

6. Now, all these things were said and done as my father dwelt in a tent in the valley that he called Lemuel.

Here again, Nephi introduces us to a series of sacred events by reminding us that his father dwelt in a tent.{1} The sacred events he describes in this context are his marriage and his father’s discovering the Liahona.
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FOOTNOTES

{1} For a discussion of the tent as a temple, see above, the chapter called, “1 Nephi 2:4-6, Lehi’s tent as a Tabernacle.”

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1 Nephi 16:1-4  

1. And now it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had made an end of speaking to my brethren, behold they said unto me: Thou hast declared unto us hard things, more than we are able to bear.
2 And it came to pass that I said unto them that I knew that I had spoken hard things against the wicked, according to the truth; and the righteous have I justified, and testified that they should be lifted up at the last day; wherefore, the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center.
3 And now my brethren, if ye were righteous and were willing to hearken to the truth, and give heed unto it, that ye might walk uprightly before God, then ye would not murmur because of the truth, and say: Thou speakest hard things against us.
4 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did exhort my brethren, with all diligence, to keep the commandments of the Lord.

Nephi was a brave and tenacious young man. His brothers had already shown they had short tempers, and they would show it again. To Sam, he was probably something of a hero. But to his other older brothers he was someone who had to be dealt with. That relationship was apparent both before and after this event, but this time was different. They actually listened to him.

It is apparent that Nephi’s brothers understood the intent of his words. He had reminded them of the blessings they had received and probably of the covenants they had made and also, of the consequence of their continued inconstancy. The power of Nephi’s words moved them to a temporary repentance. Nephi was quick to see hope in their contrition, and reported,

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1 Nephi 15:32-36  

32 And it came to pass that I said unto them that it was a representation of things both temporal and spiritual; for the day should come that they must be judged of their works, yea, even the works which were done by the temporal body in their days of probation.

“Works,” in many places in the New Testament and the Book of Mormon, refers to ordinances.{1} That should come as no surprise, because that is always the criterion God uses for our entering into his presence. Nephi clarifies that meaning when he adds:

33 Wherefore, if they should die in their wickedness they must be cast off also, as to the things which are spiritual, which are pertaining to righteousness; wherefore, they must be brought to stand before God, to be judged of their works; and if their works have been filthiness they must needs be filthy; and if they be filthy it must needs be that they cannot dwell in the kingdom of God; if so, the kingdom of God must be filthy also.

Righteousness is zedek, that is, correctness in priesthood and temple ordinances and covenants. While it is certainly true that we will be judge according to all the things we do and are, it is also true that there must be order in all things. No one can take priesthood honor to himself. What we do in the kingdom must be sanctioned in advance by calling, ordinance, and covenant, and then sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise or it has no validity.

34 But behold, I say unto you, the kingdom of God is not filthy, and there cannot any unclean thing enter into the kingdom of God; wherefore there must needs be a place of filthiness prepared for that which is filthy.
35 And there is a place prepared, yea, even that awful hell of which I have spoken, and the devil is the preparator of it; wherefore the final state of the souls of men is to dwell in the kingdom of God, or to be cast out because of that justice of which I have spoken.
36 Wherefore, the wicked are rejected from the righteous, and also from that tree of life, whose fruit is most precious and most desirable above all other fruits; yea, and it is the greatest of all the gifts of God. And thus I spake unto my brethren. Amen.

We wonder, if the words had not been dictated to him by the Holy Ghost, how differently Nephi might have written Doctrine and Covenants 76. The words in that revelation, as Joseph wrote them, are a celebration of God’s love for all of his children and the assurance that each person will inherit that degree of glory that is most consistent with his nature as he has defined his own nature. However, while Nephi’s message does not deny that, it completely redirects its focus. To Nephi, Alma, Mormon, and all the prophets in the Book of Mormon, salvation is being where God is. Anything that is different from that is different from salvation.

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FOOTNOTE

{1} Some scriptures where “works” refer to ordinances are: Psalms 145:17-18; all of the book of James; Alma 5:54, 11:44, 12:30, Alma 13:3, Moroni 8:23.

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